One year ago today: February 23, 2023, a generic work day.
Five years ago today: February 23, 2019, quilting bee—sold out.
Nine years ago today: February 23, 2015, a less perfect union.
Random years ago today: February 23, 2001, the sound barrier.
This could be your lucky day, especially if you are a hobby robotist. Did I mention the repair shop I stopped at Wednesday morning, but he was closed? Figuring a shop around that long (it looked 1960s) would still do business primarily by phone, I kept calling and got through an hour ago. He got out of the repair business like I did, 15 years ago, and I guessed right about that monster warehouse behind the store. He’s got tons of material that, he reports, if he sells the building, he would have to throw out. There’s a picture of my reflection with the van in the door or the place, so I’d remember the shortcut. It’s 11 miles from here.
Pictures have emerged of the new wall Egypt has built to seal off the Gaza strip. Aren’t they supposed to support the Palestinians? Hardly, Egypt does not want them back. (Most inhabitants of Gaza are Egyptians, not native to the area. Egypt is not equipped to handle refugees who breed by the millions and knows if they allow the Palestinians into Egyptian territory, they will cause trouble and Israel will strike back. It took nearly fifty years, but Egypt has learned not to provoke Israel.
How about the mosquito infestation in Argentina. I thought it was a photo of a locust swarm. The only place I’ve seen anything like it before was in Hudson’s Bay, Canada. Every square inch of everything covered with fifty of these bugs. They serve no purpose other than breeding, they do not carry pollen or each pests, and are not nourishing enough to feed any predators, they are a breed of gnat. I wonder what set of conditions in Argentina caused this ourbreak.
The US is back on the Moon, but with a lot less fanfare. This should have been Mars and it should have been forty years ago. It’s a lander looking for water near the south pole, that’s at the top of the Moon when you look at it. If they can find any usable moisture at all, future manned landings could last weeks, not hours. The event was portrayed as a “private company” using the SpaceX rocket, but everybody knows it is NASA cash trying to justify their own bloated budgets.
The details finally emerge from the ship sunk in the Red Sea by the Houthis (rhymes with “Booties”), and as I suspected, it was of the cheapest attacks yet. A good used RPG launcher sells for as little as $500. If you wait until they go on sale at the Bazalt & Degtyarev factory about 160 miles northeast of Moscow. The model 7 was produced until 2008 . Wait for a sale and you can pick up the rockets for $100 each. Not a bad trade for sinking a $95 million dollar tanker.
Mind you, you’ll have to make friends with an arms dealer. It is “illegal” for civilians to buy the really good military gear. You are actually supposed to be a legitimate government to buy tanks and planes and rockets. This was the reason for all the fuss in 1948 about Isreal declaring itself a nation. Before that, they were fighting the Arab machine guns with pistols and shotguns. And the reason why the US was so quick to recognize them, a sweetheart arrangement that is still in full force today. We lend them the money to buy the arms that keeps our economy floating.
Banned in the USA.
(Copyright violation.)
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This is something you’ve never seen before. It’s a telegraph plug-board. Before this was invented, all the telegraph keys were on one wire and clattered all the time. I have not been out for a cold beer since last Monday. My day off and I’m moving half speed, it isn’t fair. Sure, it’s part of getting on but why Friday. Make it a Tuesday when my biggest chore is watching Gunsmoke. So, I’ve got to do something today, it’s a personal rule. I have an idea. When I build a circuit, pattern the pins with a series of small dimples from a sharpened piece of surplus wire. How about small tool with spikes embedded for the more common patterns, like a tranisistor.
Skeptic, the magazine. I’ve quit buyiing it. I stopped my subscription for the same reason years ago, now I will no longer even bother reading it. The problem is content, which began to suffer around 2011-2012. They used to give in-depth discussions on both points of view, leaving you to weigh the arguments. But then the subject matter got to ever weaker topics (like climate change and how to correctly call people racist). Then in 2019 there was an abrupt shift. The focus shifted from the topic to the same angle on everything—did the other point of view present his case right. If you ask me that sucks.
When I read an article that was titled about micro-agression, it was three pages over whether or not the issue was presented according to the author’s arbitrary rules of order. As if it was important the author imagined one side was “shifting their weight from foot-to-foot” and the other was “too polarized”. They’ll not see another dollar out of me. I also discussed Phase 2 of the booklet I’m writing on investing. An emerging pattern is giving the new saver something he can relate to in his everyday life. The average person starting a decades long savings plan often has nothing around him to guage whether he is on the right track. Phase 1 is the 2,000 hour work-year, Phase 2 is a-dollar-a-day.
That’s another question I often get asked. How much per day do you have to save to get ahead. The answer is around a dollar. You must distingquish between gettting rich and getting ahead. They are not the same, there is little you can do to get rich and stay rich, it is largely a matter of chance. Most lottery winners are broke within a couple years and the others fade into obscurity. They came into the money, but don’t now how to continue from there, so they merely survive in comfort.
Much later, I stopped in a the club on 17 and it appears we have a gig any time we want. I left a message for the Prez, hoping we can begin this tomorrow., it’s a slot I’ve wanted for some time. Tips-only but still a foot in the door in a situation that pits us against some entrenched local tradition. Like hypocrites who are not in it for the money but will not play for free. Later, I kind of phoned late enough to catch the Prez after lights out, but he’s okayed the gig for tomorrow. He knows that’s been a bit of a prize since day on last August. The new owner, quick to catch on to the locals, has installed his own complete PA system which we can use. That makes the gig a plug-and-play, definitely a welcome option to humping gear at my age.
I then stopped downtown to give Wilford a string of transistors and there was something strange going on. Some AOL had his truck parked in the bank driveway across Main Street and was blasting really loud music. People called the cops. It was some jerk around 30 claiming the music was “his band”. It was ho-hum rap and Afro-Cuban thumping. I must say, it was an excellent sound system, thousands of watts. The only louder music I’ve heard was at the Rolling Stones concert at the Kingdome (Seattle) in 1981.
ADDENDUM
You know, I’d like to say something about the investment plan I’m trying to put into writing. I appear quite comfortable compared to some, but that is an unfair comparison. I travel, party, and don’t know what a borng day is, but I know people with several times my income who don’t have enough. The fact is, as far as a break in life, I never got one. Not one chance or event ever worked out and I never married the boss’ daughter, as the ancient saying goes. What you see today is the results of my long-term back-up plan. It’s not much but without it I’d be destitute.
In that context, what I have today is the result of the failure of every other venture. I’ve tried mail-order, construction, renovations, selling, driving cab, union jobs, corporate jobs, you name it, I’ve done it or some version of it. I’ve taught music, accounting, dancing, computers, and navigation.
On the other hand, if I came into money, I can pretty much guarantee you five years from now my name would be a household word for getting ahead. As it transpired, in the scale of things, I never did get a break. Oh, I can hear Elliott and others howling over that one—but they didn’t hear the qualification “scale of things’. Sure, if you mean I was healthy enough to pile lumber when I was 22, then everybody got a break, but I’m talking about a situation that changed my life materially for the better. Materially? Sure, the lack of resources has always been what held me back. Don’t get me started on that.
